Tourist boom needs rooms

GEELONG must attract more accommodation development to capitalise on a record number of tourists flocking to the city and its surrounds, the region’s tourism chief warns.

Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine’s (TGGB) 2018/19 annual report revealed a record 5.9 million tourists travelled to our region last financial year, pumping $1.1 billion into the local economy and supporting 7551 jobs.

But the report also warned the region’s accommodation levels had “failed to keep up” with demand.

“We are now suffering from an undersupply of accommodation to service this demand, resulting in a far greater gap between day trip visitation (4.2 million) and overnight travellers (1.7 million),” the report noted.

“According to the 10-year outlook in the recent Tourism Development Plan, the region requires a further 1564 guest rooms to meet demand and help us reach upwards of 7.5 million visitors by 2027.”

TGGB executive director Brett Ince said the lack of accommodation was a hurdle that needed to be overcome for the city to take full advantage of its booming tourism industry.

“The massive gap is accommodation, and a big part of our strategy to not just continually build day trip visitation, it’s actually to get people to stay overnight – and we need the beds to do that,” Mr Ince said.

“It’s pretty simple, if we don’t have the beds for people to stay overnight, we can’t attract that market. You do find, particularly over the summer season and when we’ve got the blockbuster international events, that we are zero accommodation availability.”

Mr Ince said the region’s tourism strategy outlined the need to speak with prospective developers and stakeholders to encourage new hotel accommodation projects in the region.

“One of the priorities we outline in the tourism development plan is to have a large four to five star branded accommodation,” he said.

“International visitors look for brands.”

The region’s visitor economy’s growth is expected to continue over the next decade.